Getting Started

To start experimentuing with this stuff you need the following

• Information about the AVR Microcontroller range of devices. To start with there is the Atmel AVR site and also the AVRFreaks web site is another good place to start. Both sites have application notes, sample code, data sheets, information about software, hardware and development system tools etc. They have a specific GCC page that has several tutorials and other useful information



• The AVR port of the popular GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) called AVR-GCC. For those developing on MS Windows, there is a single Win32 install package WinAVR that now contains everything needed to get started quickly with AVR-GCC. It includes the complete GCC Compiler and Bin Utils, the Programmers Notepad which can now execute external programs like GNU make, the AVRDude Programming software and many other useful tools and utilities. For other OS's there is quite a bit of information at the OpenAVR site



• A Development System with a Programmer.
  • I now use a LocoDev PCB for my development, but there are many different systems available to choose from. See the comprehensive list of available Development Boards on the AVRFreaks site under the Tools.
  • The first batch of LocoDev boards have been made and are now available. However, unless you use a bootloader like MegaLoad, you will still need a FLASH programmer. Here is a simple Cable Programmer or you can buy a Atmel AVRISP programmer for about US$29 from Digikey.
  
  
• The Embedded Loconet software from the project's CVS archive